2017.5 Release of Retirement View is now ready!

After over 3 years of work, we have re-written the entire program in a new language. Why? Because Microsoft had discontinued our old development system and some bugs could not be fixed. In addition, there was not room to add new functionality.

The good news is that this release has a lot of nice enhancements that improve the software dramatically. AND we are now poised to "finally" begin working on adding some new planning modules.

To "upgrade" to the new version, download and install the Windows or the Mac version. This will NOT affect your activation or delete any data. We are however moving the Windows data format to a new format and the converter tool will run during installation. (The NEW data file format ends in .rp8. The old format ends in .rp7).

2017.1 List of Updates

NOTE: Due to a change in the grid control, you have to DOUBLE CLICK description, value etc. on the Investments, Cash Infusions, and Special Expenses screens. Single clicking does not work. We will see if we can change it back to single click but for now use DOUBLE CLICK on the secondary screens.

ALL: Basic 2017 branding changes.

ALL: Updated Help file with new 2017 tax tables and Social Security changes.

ALL: Updated Social Security algorithm and related data points to 2017 data for bend points, national average earnings, maximum creditable earnings, average wage index series, and cost of living adjustment. Now using 20 year average of 2.13% for the COLA in the built-in estimate. If you do not use the built-in estimate, make sure you consider using the 2.13% COLA under Settings Social Security.

ALL: Maximizing main window now increases font size of the Spreadsheet for better readability.

ALL: Added "Simple" Spreadsheet that only has most important color columns. Use Ctrl-R to switch to it.

ALL: The executable file has been renamed from Planner.exe to RetirementView.exe so you can find it more easily in the list of Processes if you need to.

ALL: Added a built-in Print Preview screen for the printed reports.

ALL: Added a built-in PDF printing and saving option for the printed reports.

ALL: Changed old Most Recently Used file menu items to Open Recent menu.

PRO: Advisors with a CFP can now print the Registered Trademark symbol with their name.

ALL: You can now run the plan out to age 117 the age of the oldest person in the world. Good luck and good health!

ALL: If couples plan and one spouse still working, we now deduct Social Security Tax at 6.2% (Subject to the Max Earnings test) and Medicare Tax at 1.45% (thanks Peter Plant).

ALL: Updated EBRI.org retirement factoids that pop up if you click returns in unregistered demo mode.

ALL: Re-added the Backups routine that backs up data file changes in case you need to recover lost data.

ALL: Removed built-in AppUpdate since it failed on most computers. Now just point to online download pages.

ALL: Fixed bug where spouse was already retired but the spouse tab was not disabling job income and other "Not Applicable" fields (thanks Nick Seltun).

ALL: Fixed bug where clicking on spouse Job Income field or Retirement Age field would call SetAlreadyRetired which would by mistake set the primary client Job Income to zero (thanks Nick Seltun).

ALL: Fixed bug in print out on Investments page where the blended return BEFORE retirement did not make any sense if it was a Couples plan and one spouse was already retired. The program would average a 0% return for the retired spouse since they had no "before" retirement period. We now just print "N/A" since that return does not make any sense when the retirement has already started (thanks Nick Seltun).

ALL: Fixes long time bug for "Invalid Type Mismatch" on the secondary grid controls on Investments, Cash Infusions, and Special Expenses.

ALL: Fixes long time bug where program could not print in color if your default printer was set to "black and white" printing only (i.e. you could not switch to color and get the reports to print in color).

2017.2 List of Updates (FIXED A NUMBER OF ISSUES THAT SLIPPED THRU TESTING)

ALL: Fixed Data conversion problem with double && showing up.

ALL: Fixed Data conversion problem where Phone was being put into the Last Name of the client.

ALL: Fixed Data conversion problem with returns on Investments and Cash Infusions being divided by 100.

ALL: Fixed Data conversion problem with inflation rates on Special Expenses being divided by 100.

ALL: Fixed issue editing User Information if you hit "Cancel & Exit" button program would lock up because dialog appeared behind the screen.

ALL: Fixed application Password screen and functionality to prevent access to program if password not entered correctly.

ALL: Fixed program crashing if you double click an .rp8 file to open the application. This does not open a document at this time, but at least the program no longer crashes when you try to do that. We will be adding code to allow opening by double click in the next couple of months.

ALL: Fixed Social Security stop age off by one on the graph. If the stop age is 100 it will go up to and including 100 now which is more intuitive.

ALL: Fixed mouse click on Retirement Income Graph so that it works the way the old version worked and updates values on single clicks.

CONSUMER: Removed blank disabled entries on the Tools menu.

ALL: Fixed Retirement Income Graph bar width so that there is not a big gap on the graph on the right side.

ALL: Fixed problem with red shortfalls showing on the Retirement Income Graph when there were no shortfalls. There was some code that we had not transferred over from the old version that fixed this issue.

ALL: Fixed 2 issues with numbers displayed in Spreadsheet for Social Security After Taxes when there is Tax Free Withdrawals. The calculation was correct, but the numbers displayed in 2 columns were not correct.

ALL: New .rp8 files are compatible on Mac or Windows in 2017 editions.

ALL: if file had EndIllustrationAge set to 0 the program would crash because that was used to allocate memory for the grid control (Thanks Dennis Hill). (2017.2e)

ALL: Fixed bug with spouse's Taxable Investments Retirement Return not getting pushed correctly to main screen and thus not saving to the file. Thus it kept getting reset to zero when you opened the program. (Thanks Jack O'Hanlon for special help with this one). (2017.2e)

ALL: Fixed problem with Company Match not loading properly in all cases from old files. You do not have to re-convert your data files, but just install 2017.2f to fix this problem (Thanks Andrew Hermsen). (2017.2f)

2017.3 List of Updates (Continuing to enhance the software)

ALL: Fixed bug where Spouse Social Security was NOT showing up at all because the SSNpercent was set to 100 on Spouse Social Security and that had the effect of turning off the spouse Social Security (thanks Ron Johnson)

ALL: Added code to store printer setup string so that Landscape or Portrait setting would be saved and reloaded(thanks Bob Dearborn)

ALL: Added check box and code to "Print Using Classic" report style

ALL: Added check box and code to "Print client name" at top of report

ALL: Added code to check for duplicates in the Open Recent menu (2017.3b)

ALL: Added code to store the Open Recent menu items and reload when you run software next time (2017.3b)

ALL: Enabled the OpenDocument code because you need that for the OpenRecent menu item click to open the file (2017.3b)

ALL: Fixed printing fencepost error on printing Spreadsheet where it was duplicating rows or printing page 2 when there were no more rows to print (2017.3b)

ALL: Added code to increase font size and column width on Investments, Infusions, and Expenses when you maximize those screens. This makes it WAY EASIER to read the text especially when projected onto a large screen. (2017.3b)

ALL: Fixed print of Savings graph that showed a ghosted copy of the graph offset from one underneat.h (2017.3c)

ALL: Added code to hide crosshairs image if you unfreeze the data readers on the graph. (2017.3c)

ALL: Fixed print code for Investments, Cash Infusions and Special Expenses where it would repeat rows on 2nd page if rows were disabled. (2017.3c)

PRO: Added and tweaked sizing on print code to print logos for customized advisor versions at much clearer resolution than before. (2017.3c)

PRO: Added code to print FAX number on cover page if you entered it. (2017.3c)

2017.4 List of Updates

ALL: MAC: Fixed problem where printing full page of Special Expenses was printing too many rows and leaking onto the footer.

ALL: Added code to prevent setting or loading of Start Ages on Special Expenses or Cash Infusions because it would cause an OutOfBoundsException and crash the program or not load the data (Thanks Jerry Gipson)

WINDOWS: Fixed problem where Savings graph data reader was off if app opened in MAX mode

WINDOWS: Fixed problem printing Savings graph where it had a double ghosted version if app opened in MAX mode,

ALL: Fixed problem where printing Cash Infusions or Special Expenses would sometimes print a 2nd page but with no rows on it.

PRO: Fixed problem on Life Insurance Needs report printing where clicking Print button would lock up the software. This print feature is still in process at this time.

2017.4b List of Updates

ALL: MAC: Fixed problem where printing full page of Special Expenses was printing too many rows and leaking onto the footer.

ALL: Fixed problem where if Social Security estimate enabled in defaults and you open a file that doesn't use the SS estimator, the Soc Sec text boxes would stay disabled (thanks Andrew Hermsen)

ALL: To eliminate confusion from users, we removed popup messages about resetting the ages on Cash Infusions and Special Expenses when Start Age is less than Current Age, which occurred typically after someone had a birthday and then opened the software.

ALL: Fixed problem where if Pension COLA was set to a value, but settings were set to "Do Not Use COLA", the program would still use the COLA in the calculations even though it was disabled.

ALL: Fixed obscure bug in Social Security taxation calculation when already retired and there are also Cash Infusions (thanks John Gilsdorf)

ALL: Added code to try to detect printer errors when printer cannot be connected to or has some other error.

2017.5b- ALL: Fixed bug in after tax Job Income calculation that is used when one spouse retires (thanks Scott Jercich)

2017.5c- PRO: Fixed issue where original inputs were sometimes not restored after using the Life Insurance Needs Tool (thanks Jerry Sheridan).- PRO: Added the Life Insurance Needs report printing function.- ALL: Fixed issue where printed the report title was not being saved and reloaded.- ALL: Fixed issue in printout on Assumptions recap where Tax Free Contribution printed as a % instead of Dollars when Tax Deferred was set to a % because it was using the wrong setting.- ALL: Fixed issue in printout on Assumptions recap where Taxable Contribution printed as a % instead of Dollars when Tax Deferred was set to a % because it was using the wrong setting.

2017.5d- PRO: Fixed issue where Age under Retirement Income Graph was not made visible again after opening Life Insurance Needs Tool (thanks Jerry Sheridan)- PRO: Fixed another issue where all the original inputs were sometimes not restored after using the Life Insurance Needs Tool (thanks Jerry Sheridan).- ALL: Changed Cash Infusions Tax Type column to "Add Extra Infusion to this Investment Bucket" for more clarity on how it's used. For example, some were setting that column to Tax Free for Tax Free infusions, but the Tax Rate is what controls whether it is Tax Free or not.

NOTE: Due to a change in the grid control, you have to DOUBLE CLICK description, value etc. on the Investments, Cash Infusions, and Special Expenses screens. Single clicking does not work. We will be changing this back to single click in the near future.